Court-martialled sailors handed minimum sentence

Petty Officer (second class) Janet Sinclair, right, and her spouse, Petty Officer (second class) Silvya Reid, will be reduced in rank and fined after a court martial judge's order on Monday.

Photograph by: Darren Stone
, Victoria Times Colonist

VICTORIA — A court martial judge ordered Monday that two sailors in a precedent-setting legal case linked to secret military computer systems and the security of information at the Defence Department’s Ottawa headquarters be reduced in rank and fined.

In announcing his decision, Col. Mario Dutil said the sentence was the minimum the court could impose.

Petty Officer (second class) Janet Sinclair and her spouse, Petty Officer (second class) Silvya Reid, worked at the National Defence Headquarters command centre in Ottawa at the time of the July 2007 incident and both had a top-secret clearance and access to classified databases.

The two were originally charged with a number of offences, including sabotage, but they were later dropped.

Sinclair and Reid pleaded guilty last week at a court martial in Victoria to damaging military property, in this case a computer desktop icon. Their actions “impeded access to a ‘classified’ database,” the court heard.

Sinclair was reduced in rank to leading seaman, given a severe reprimand and fined $3,000. Reid was reduced in rank to leading seaman and fined $3,000. The two are currently serving at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt on Vancouver Island.

Dutil said a stiffer sentence was imposed on Sinclair because she was the one who walked Reid through the technical steps needed to impede access to the classified database at headquarters.

The court has heard that the two did that to send a message to two lazy co-workers at the National Defence command centre and force them to do work.

Sinclair’s lawyer, Martin Reesink of Ottawa, had earlier told the court the incident would indeed be serious if the secret database itself were tampered with, but that did not happen. Actual data were not harmed and what was damaged was a database icon, he added.

But in his judgment, Dutil noted the incident was extremely serious. “The offenders through their actions created an internal crisis in NDCC,” he said.

Although the military database was not damaged, the actions of the two “brought into doubt the accuracy of the information” that the centre passed on to the senior military leadership, he added.

Dutil, however, noted Sinclair and Reid had good records and had apologized. “I believe that your apologies are genuine and sincere,” he said.

The court also heard that the incident was out of character for both of the sailors.

Prosecutor Maj. Jason Samson said the director of military prosecutors in Ottawa will review the sentence. “The review of the sentence will determine whether . . . it was adequate or whether or not there’s legal grounds to proceed to appeal,” he added.

Sinclair and Reid and their lawyers declined to comment.

Reid has served in the military for more than 15 years while Sinclair has served for more than 20.

The court martial heard from Lt.-Col. Theo Heuthorst, commander of the National Defence command centre, who testified the incident reduced the effectiveness of the centre’s computer system used for missile-launch and space data, and put national security at risk for a two-week period.

But Reesink challenged those claims. “With all due respect, there’s a lot of puffing going around about national security,” Reesink said. “There was no risk to national security. The actual database was always safe.”

Another officer who worked at the command centre at the time also testified he did not think national security had been harmed. “The timeliness and delay of that information did not impact the operation of NDCC at that time,” said Lt.-Cmdr. Gavin McCallum.

“We had full connectivity. We had the information needed to carry on.”

But McCallum, along with other witnesses, agreed the sailors showed poor judgment and a lack of discipline in their actions.

Although similar incidents have happened in the U.S., Canadian Forces legal officials say this appears to be first for this country’s military.

Reesink also questioned how the Canadian Forces reacted, both in charging the two originally with sabotage and issuing that information to the news media. He noted that a second press release advising the media the charge of sabotage had been dropped was issued at the insistence of defence lawyers.

“How often are people charged with sabotage one month and then minor mischief the next month?” he asked the court.

Both Reid and Sinclair have testified their personal lives were thrown into upheaval by the media coverage of their case. The court heard how the couple felt stigmatized by the coverage and that friends shunned them.

But Dutil did not take issue with how the Canadian Forces handled the case. He said although the media coverage was embarrassing for the two sailors, it was their actions which ultimately caused the publicity.

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